Dark Summer Dawn (9 page)

'Any requests?' Lisa began to look through the racks of records.

'Anything but Mendelssohn,' Celia murmured. 'All that dreary German romanticism…'

'I like Mendelssohn,' Julie said abruptly. 'Put on "Fingal's "Cave", Lisa.'

'I can't seem to find it,' Lisa said mendaciously, after a pause. 'Let's have some Ravel instead.' She set the turntable in motion and soon the room was filled with the passionately mysterious strains of 'Daphnis and Chloe'.

It was a mistake, of course, and she knew it as soon as she heard the first of those evocative chords. Her hands were suddenly damp and her teeth sank into the soft underside of her lip. She hadn't been thinking when she had made that particular selection. All she had been concerned with was trying to take some of the tension out of the atmosphere, yet she had only succeeded in transferring it to herself.

It was her record, one of the many things she had left behind when she had fled from Stoniscliffe, as she thought, for ever. It had been a seventeenth birthday present, and Dane had given it to her. She could remember her surprise and her pleasure when she had unwrapped it. Any gifts she had received from him in the past had been purely duty ones, token acknowledgements of Christmas and birthdays. This was the first time that he had seemed to deliberately choose something that he knew she wanted and that would give her pleasure. So, upon the heels of her delight had come the embarrassment of having to subdue her instinctive hostility and thank him, which she had managed with a certain amount of faltering.

He'd smiled down at her, his mouth twisting cynically. 'Don't outrage your principles, Lisa,' he had advised coolly. 'It's pure selfishness on my part. I'd rather encourage your obvious penchant for the classics than have you fall into the hands of rock like Julie.'

Julie had protested indignantly and it had all ended in laughter, but Lisa had wondered about it all for a long time afterwards. She had no idea that Dane was even aware of her preferences in music. She had always supposed his indifference to her to be total, and the realisation that he might know more about her than she thought was a disturbing one.

Altogether, she thought, it had been a strange and disyear. She had been moody, swinging from one emotional extreme to another, as ready to cry as she was to laugh. Chas had been understanding and tolerant, ascribing her volatility to the residue of grief still remaining after her mother's death, but Lisa knew now that it hadn't been as simple as that.

Dane's gift had sparked off something deep within her, something which she was too young and untried to acknowledge or even to recognise. All she knew was that her awareness of him had increased acutely, almost painfully. She found herself listening for the sound of his car on the drive, watching him covertly in the evening when he sat talking to Chas. When he was away on business trips as he frequently was, she felt lost and somehow afraid, as if she had been cast adrift on some uncharted emotional sea.

And when he brought his girl-friends to the house, she suffered. The days when she could join Julie in her light-hearted criticism of Dane's women were long gone, she found.

And throughout it all, she played the record he had given her until it seemed she knew every note, every cadence by heart. And when she played 'Daybreak', she felt as if the music encapsulated everything she was feeling, as if it suggested the dawning inside her of something almost too wonderful to be contemplated."

And now she sat, her nails digging into the palms of her hands, her head throbbing dizzily as she remembered what it had been like to be seventeen and falling in love with Dane Riderwood.

'Just like old times,' Chas said jovially from the doorway, as he propelled himself forward into the room.

Lisa started almost guiltily, a deep flush mantling her face as Dane walked in behind his father.

He said, ' "Daybreak" in the evening? I think not.' He walked across to the hi-fi, flicked a switch and the sound faded, leaving an aching silence behind it, a silence so profound that Lisa was sure that everyone must be able to hear the slow, uneven pounding of her heart.

Then Mrs Arkwright appeared with the coffee, and Celia's light drawl began describing her father's plans to extend his works, and the moment was safely past. There was even more music, Lisa realised numbly, light innocuous background stuff with no associations for anyone.

Julie said suddenly, 'If we rolled back the carpet a little, we could dance. Shall we?'

Lisa hadn't the slightest desire to dance. She wanted to seek out the sanctuary of her room, and stay there quietly until the morning, but she knew that if she made an excuse and withdrew, then the party would begin to break up and Chas would be disappointed, to say nothing of Julie.

As soon as the necessary space had been cleared, Tony was immediately at Julie's side, his arms sliding possessively round her.

Celia gave her a little gurgle again. 'How marvellous to be in love,' she commented. She smiled rather challengingly at Dane. 'Well, darling, are you going to remind me of how it once used to be?'

Silently, Dane held out his arms and Celia went into them, lifting her arms around his neck and looking provocatively up into his eyes.

Lisa was astonished at the blatancy of her behaviour and glanced quickly at James to see how he was taking it, but he didn't even seem to have noticed that his wife was clinging to another man, and again Lisa got the impression that James had withdrawn mentally to a distance. Had he for or didn't he care that Dane and Celia had once gone around together for several months?

'James,' Julie called out suddenly, 'Lisa isn't dancing.'

Lisa flushed with mingled embarrassment and annoyance as James came towards her with an apologetic air.

'It's all right, James,' she said. 'It's been a tiring day. I'd rather sit quietly with Chas anyway.'

'Oh, don't be a spoilsport, darling.' Julie detached herself from the reluctant Tony and came over to them. 'Besides, you know you really want to dance with James. She used to have the most tremendous crush on you at one time,' she added, turning to him.

Lisa's flush deepened agonisingly, and she would have liked to have taken Julie by the shoulders and shaken her.

She said quietly, 'I really don't want to dance, thanks, and I'm sure James doesn't want to hear all the lurid details of my schoolgirl fantasies.'

'Oh, I don't know,' Celia drawled. 'He might find them quite fascinating. James has forgotten how it feels to be the answer to the maiden's prayer, haven't you, sweetie?'

'If you say so, Celia.' James's voice was weary. 'Can I get you some more coffee, Lisa? Or a brandy, perhaps.'

She refused quietly and sat down beside Chas. After a pause Chas said in an undertone, 'I swear I don't know what gets into Julie at times. She wants her ears boxing.' He gave a little sigh. 'But Tony's a good, steady chap. If anyone can settle her, he should be able to.'

Lisa said 'Yes' and wished she could have agreed with a little more conviction.

The music came to an end and another record was selected.

'We must all change partners,' Julie declared. 'Tony, you dance with Celia. And Lisa—you've got to dance this time. This is your welcome home party. You can't be a wallflower.'

'Why not?' Celia asked smilingly. 'She might enjoy the novelty of the experience. After all, no one can want to be the centre of attention all the time.' Not even Lisa. The unspoken words seemed to hover in the air.

Lisa rose to her feet reluctantly. This time she would accept James's invitation, she thought. But it wasn't James who came forward and took her hand, drawing her on to the floor. It was Dane. For a moment she stiffened uncontrollably, and then realising that Chas was watching them and smiling, she forced herself to relax.

'That's better.' His voice was low and sardonic.

She did not look up at him. Instead she stared rigidly at his shoulder as if she was trying to memorise every indithread that had gone into the making of his elegant suit.

After a pause he said, 'And how are you enjoying the fatted calf?'

'It isn't a dish I have any real taste for,' she said between gritted teeth.

'That's unfortunate. But you know how to put on an act. You do it every day for the cameras, so you can do it for Chas.'

She said steadily, 'I'm doing it now, Dane. Didn't you know?'

He looked down at her, his lips compressed, his eyes like chips of ice. He said, 'My father commented tonight that it was just like old times. He doesn't know it. Lisa, but he was wrong. There's no way you can ever get back on to the old footing in this house. Too much has happened for that. Don't even contemplate trying.'

She lifted her chin. 'You really don't have to worry. You know why I'm here, but as soon as the wedding's over I'll be gone, and nothing Chas can say or do will persuade me to do otherwise.'

I'm glad to hear it,' he said grimly. 'And just one other word of warning. Schoolgirl crush or not, James Dalton is a married man, and Celia doesn't relinquish any of her possessions lightly, however little she may seem to value them at times.'

'Thank you for the warning,' she said tightly. 'Does Celia regard you among those possessions—for old times' sake?'

'I don't think that's any of your business,' he said too pleasantly.

'In other words, the double standard is alive and well and living in Stoniscliffe,' she said. 'Good for you, Dane. You were always a law unto yourself, and so is Celia, so you are remarkably well suited on those grounds at least.'

Dane's face darkened with anger, but he didn't answer, and presently the music ended and she escaped from him with a feeling of utter relief.

The throbbing in her head that she had been aware of earlier was now developing into a full-scale headachy, and after a while, she made an excuse to Chas and went in search of some aspirin.

It was cooler upstairs and she lingered there for a while, glad of the darkness and the comparative quiet, waiting for the tablets to begin to take effect. She knew she would have to go down again, or Chas would be sending someone to find her, and she had just reached the half-landing where the wide staircase turned when she heard Julie's voice just below her, almost hoarse with passion and longing. 'Oh, darling—God, darling—I can't wait any longer!'

Lisa halted instantly, aware that her footsteps would have been soundless on the thick carpet.

It was an embarrassing situation to be in, and she turned quietly and headed back upstairs, but at the same time she was conscious of intense relief. Julie was in love, deeply and yearningly in love. No one could have doubted her feelings who had heard that note in her voice. So she and Tony would be married—and Lisa understood now, smiling wryly, Julie's insistence on haste.

Tony must have hidden depths, she decided, to have aroused such passionate desire in her stepsister, but she was thankful for it. Julie needed the stability that love and marriage would bring, and it was really no wonder that she was displaying so little interest in the actual details of the wedding. It was the belonging that she wanted, not the little rites and ceremonies and traditions that attended upon it.

She walked into her room and closed the door behind her, then looked across the room at her mirrored reflection. She saw what anyone would see—the Amber Girl, poised and confident, the girl with the world at her feet. And watched while the image disintegrated until there was only Lisa— alone, unhappy and afraid.

CHAPTER FIVE